Monday, August 17, 2009

We're in the pool. The sun cascades down on us. Sophie stands on an underwater bench splashing and laughing. Neil is on the other side of her, we are chest deep in the water. She has just figured out how to use the super soaker squirt gun and is delighting in her new found power. There is activity all around. Voices and movement. Our little family, among friends.

Then a strangled cry from one of the women sitting at the table next to the pool: "kid in the water!" We all turn. In that blackness between heartbeats, I see just the top of a child's head peeking out from the water. Not a capable swimmer, he has fallen off of the raft that he was sitting on. No more than a tuft of hair is visible while his arms and legs churn the water below, struggling in futility to get back to the air above.

Time speeds up as the boy's father dives in from the side while a family friend lunges from his position in the pool a half a dozen feet away. They reach the boy simultaneously and lift him up. His mother waits on the side, arms outstretched, a mask of horror on her face. He is in his mother's embrace, crying. Everyone else in the pool is frozen.

The spell lifts as we realize that he is okay. Time slows back down to normal and suddenly everyone is talking at once. I start to say how scary that was but my voice catches. We came this close to the darkest nightmare of every parent and the adrenalin is still pumping too hard for me to speak. I feel like I've been punched in the gut.

I grab Sophie and pull her to me. I wrap her up in my arms and nuzzle her cheek. I look around and see that the other mothers are doing the same with their children. It was not my child, but I felt the fear as viscerally as if it had been. I suspect I am not alone in this.

Later, the boy is back playing in the pool. Unharmed and unfazed by his experience, he cavorts in the shallows. The adults are all a little more vigilant. We are more aware of the fragility of our situation. Disaster can strike anywhere and no one wants to be on the receiving end of that horror.

25 comments:

That is so very scary... thankfully, he was okay. We can never be too careful when our children are in the pool/ocean. Last year, my oldest son, who was almost 3 at the time, was sitting on the steps in a friends pool. I turned to duck my head underwater, and noticed he had slipped in the pool. He was face down, and was not moving. This all lasted a few seconds as I swam to him and grabbed him, pulled him out. He coughed, cried, and then he was fine. My heart was not, however. It was one of the scariest moments, ever. What was I thinking, to not put his life jacket on?

Water is such a scary place. My daughter Lauren had water wings on and she was frolicking around in the shallow end and I had buzzed Emmy aroung to the other side of the pool. With seconds, I turned my head to see Lauren going up and down out of the water. She had gotten out momentarily and taken her wings off to eat an apple slice. When she got back in she didn't put them back on. Just like you said, everything was in slow motion. I was in the pool and I was trying to get to her as fast as I could swim, but you can only go so fast. I kept my eye on her the whole time watching her inhale water as she kept going under and trying to keep herself up. I finally got to her and took her out of the pool and she coughed up some water and she was fine, but it was my worst nightmare almost come true. Needless to say, our swimming was done for the rest of that day.

Things like this keep us on our toes, and help us realize how easy, how quick, how brief it all is.

When Jake was a baby and we were leaving the community pool, I took off his floaties and gathered up our things, but at the gate got caught in a passing hello to a neighbor. Just long enough for a 2 year old boy with no fear to walk right back down the stairs into the water and think all was fine. I turned to see his big blue eyes screaming at me, looking at me, but everything below them underwater. He couldn't call out for me because his mouth was underwater.

Scariest thing ever.

How quick. How brief. How easy it all could happen.

I am so happy that little boy is safe in his home today, and that you all got to witness and get swept with the emotions of how blessed we all are to have these little ones in our life:)

Had a similar (yet much worse) experience. Made me want to grab a shovel & fill in our pool then and there. Since then, I've spent a fortune of time and money to ensure all of my kids can swim like fish.

On our family vacation this month, we stayed in a house with its own pool. We were all vigilant during the day while all the little ones were swimming, and then each night I made my youngest brother line up multiple living room chairs in front of the door that led to the pool so that none of the kids could "sleep walk" into the pool or decide to take an early dip.

I could not have gone to sleep each night without knowing that door was totally blocked.

That's one of those scenarios I replay in my head. The other day a friend took my son with her to the bathroom while we were at the pool and didn't tell me. When I realized he was missing 2 seconds later, the first thing I did was start scanning the bottom of the pool for him, my heart pounding. She reappeared with my son and all was good. But me? I needed a drink.

Whoa...my mother saved a child many years ago as she was washing dishes and through a window saw the small child climb up the ladder and down into the water over his head , as she ran out of the house screaming trying to climb the fence , the father who was BBQ'ing turned and saw the bubbles and jumped in to save him. Pools...Pfft. Scare the crap out of me ever since then.

Very capitvating read, Cara!Sometimes no matter how much you 'think' you are watching it can happen. Right before your eyes...when they say 'split second'...it's literally that. Thank God the boy was okay. Glad it wasn't yous.

As the mother of 2 daughters who are told on a daily basis, "You are NEVER to be anywhere NEAR the pool, by yourselves, for ANY reason WHATSOEVER and I'll burn your bums if you even ATTEMPT to go outside without an adult!"

Whoa girl......pools scare the beejeebees out of me...even the 3 1/2 footer we have in back..it can happen so quick. We keep ours low enough so Shea, the shortest, can touch the bottom and still have her head above the water.

When T was about Sophies age, that happened to him. We were all right there, in the water, but turned for a second and the next thing we knew he was face down floating, not moving. It was seconds, and he was fine, but the vision imprinted itself on my mind and I was still shaking as I went to sleep that night.